Harbour Lives - Netflix

Ben Fogle goes to Britain's biggest natural harbour, Poole. By land, sea
and air, Ben will explore all aspects of the place where he grew up.

Type: Documentary

Languages: English

Status: Ended

Runtime: 30 minutes

Premier: 2013-06-14

Harbour Lives - SS Noronic - Netflix

SS Noronic was a passenger ship that was destroyed by fire in Toronto
Harbour in September 1949 with the loss of at least 118 lives.

Harbour Lives - Aftermath - Netflix

The high death toll was blamed largely on the ineptitude and cowardice
of the crew. Too few crew members were on duty at the time of the fire,
and none attempted to wake the passengers. Also, many crew members fled
the ship at the first alarm, and no member of the crew ever called the
fire department. Passengers had never been informed of evacuation routes
or procedures. The design and construction of the 36-year-old ship were
also found to be at fault. The interiors had been lined with oiled wood
instead of fireproof material. Exits were only located on one deck
instead of all five. None of the ship’s fire hoses were in working
order. Captain Taylor was hailed as a hero in the weeks after the fire.
He was among the last of the crew to leave the Noronic. During the fire,
he broke windows, pulling trapped passengers from their rooms. He was
even said to have carried an unconscious woman from a smoke-filled
passageway and lowered her by rope to rescuers on the pier below. The
Canadian Department of Transportation inquiry into the disaster blamed
both Canada Steamship Lines and Captain Taylor for failing to take
adequate precautions against fire, and ordered Taylor's master's
certificate suspended for one year. A witness made an accusation that
Taylor had been under the influence of alcohol when the ship caught
fire; Taylor denied this, and other witnesses testified that Taylor was
behaving normally. The ship, which settled to the bottom in shallow
water, was partially taken apart at the scene. The upper decks were cut
away, and the hull was re-floated on November 29, 1949. It was towed to
Hamilton, Ontario, where it was scrapped. Company officials suspected
arson. Comparisons were later made to the fire aboard the CSL passenger
ship Quebec, on which the fire was proven to have been deliberately set
in a linen closet on August 14, 1950. In that year, the Noronic's near
sister ship, the smaller Huronic, was retired and scrapped. By 1967, CSL
phased out its remaining passenger ships from the fleet due to new
international regulations relating to ships containing wood and other
flammable materials. Local Funeral Home Bates And Dodds at 931 Queen
Street West assisted with recovery of many of those who perished Damage
suits for the Noronic were settled for just over $2 million. The
Noronic's whistle is now displayed in a nautical museum on Toronto's
Waterfront.

The death toll from the Noronic disaster was never precisely determined.
Estimates ranges anywhere from 118 to 139 deaths. Most died from either
suffocation or burns. Some died from being trampled or from leaping off
the upper decks onto the pier. Only one person drowned. To the anger of
many, 118 of those killed were passengers. (One crewmember, Louisa
Dustin, later died of her injuries; she was the only Canadian victim.) A
Federal inquiry was formed by the House of Commons of Canada to
investigate the accident. The fire was determined to have started in the
linen closet on C-deck, but the cause was never discovered. It was
deemed likely that a cigarette was carelessly dropped by a member of the
laundry staff.